Stalin read out the names of the couple, Aparajithan and Preethi, and appealed to the crowd that it may be more apt if they are willing to name at least their children with beautiful Tamil names.

Stalin Sunday appealed to Tamilians to use Tamil names for their children, citing examples from his own family, except his. (Express Photo/Prem Nath Pandey)

A day after he warned the BJP at the Centre that his party will be forced to repeat the 1965 political scenario by reviving anti-Hindi agitations to resist the Centre’s Hindi and Sanskrit “imposition” across India, DMK working president M K Stalin Sunday appealed to Tamilians to use Tamil names for their children, citing examples from his own family, except his.

Addressing a gathering at a marriage function in Chennai, Stalin read out the names of the couple, Aparajithan and Preethi, and appealed to the crowd that it may be more apt if they are willing to name at least their children with beautiful Tamil names.

“When I give you that advise, you may ask about my name. You are right. Actually my father wanted to call me Ayyadurai. Because Periyar (social reformer and the leader of Dravidian movement) was called Ayya, and Durai was the name of C N Annadurai (former CM and founder of DMK). But on the day of my birth, Kalaignar (M Karunanidhi) was attending a condolence meeting for Russian Communist party leader Joseph Stalin. When a note was handed over to the stage informing him about the birth of a boy, he instantly announced that he is naming his child after the late Communist leader,” Stalin said.